Yahoo Finance 'Zelda: Breath of the Wild' will be Nintendo's final Wii U game
Well, obviously.
Nintendo isn't planning to release any other games for Wii U after The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. The console-straddling release that will usher in the new — it's a Switch launch game — is also a fond farewell for Nintendo's short-lived Wii successor.
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Confirmation of the Zelda release plans came from Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime, in an interview with Polygon.
"From a first-party standpoint, there's no new development coming after the launch of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild," he said. "We really are at the end of life for Wii U."
Fils-Aime went on to reassure fans that while major game development work at Nintendo will cease, the Wii U will live on well beyond Zelda's release. He specifically shouted out the console's still-active online communities around Mario Kart and Splatoon.
"We're going to continue to support that," he said of the Wii U's online services.
Then again, both Mario Kart and Splatoon are coming to Switch before the end of 2017. The former is a spruced-up remake Mario Kart 8, which came to Wii U in 2014. And the latter is a full-blown sequel to Nintendo's first esports-friendly online shooter, coming to Switch — and Switch alone — in the summer.
All of which is to say: Nintendo may well shift its priorities around supporting Wii U's online communities sooner than expected if the Mario Kart and Splatoon crowds follow each new release to Switch. A new Smash Bros. game for Switch would speed that migration even more.
So Breath of the Wild will be the first totally new Zelda game released for Wii U, and the last. Here's to hoping the Switch fares better for Nintendo.
